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DayBreaks for 3/13/19:It’s the Truth

From the DayBreaks archive, March 2009:

As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him. While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and “sinners” came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?” On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” – Matthew 9:9-13 (NIV)

I recently received an email from a believer in which this person was a bit despairing about their Christ-walk. On the one hand, I find that encouraging. It says that the Spirit is still speaking to them – and that they are listening. It is important that we listen to the Spirit and His take on our walk. But, I have found in my own experience that the enemy can also attempt to convince me that because I’m not walking as close to Christ as I should and because that’s been true of nearly all my life, that I should just give up now and stop trying. After all, if I stop trying, I’ll stop feeling guilty, right? I’ll lose my shame, right? No…those things are emotions that are planted deep within us. We would just be in denial.

Then, I was thinking about this passage in Matthew. I love what Jesus says, For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners. Who, after all, would there have been for Jesus to call if he’d come to call the righteous? No one! His expectation for is that this: we are sinners. We will be sinners until the day we die. We will always be sinners as long as we breathe the atmosphere of this world. He knows it, he expects it and isn’t shocked by it. If you are a sinner, Jesus came to call you…and He calls you still, day in and day out through the loving voice of the Spirit. The Spirit will never encourage you to give up your faith walk. Only the enemy will do that. The Spirit will point out to you and to me our need for greater righteousness, but He is a comforter, a friend, who encourages us to walk forward into greater holiness and obedience.

So, if you’re feeling down about your sinfulness and poor Christian walk, determine if you’re hearing from the enemy who wants to defeat you in your walk with Christ because you are a sinner, or the Spirit who wants to encourage you in your walk with Christ even though you are a sinner. There’s a world of difference…and that’s the truth.

Prayer: What a comfort it is to know, Lord, that you know we’re sinners and you came for us and you come to us over and over through your Spirit to encourage us and lead us into greater obedience, love and holiness. Give us the wisdom to discern the voice of the Spirit and to distinguish it from the voice of Satan! In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Generators inside Hoover Dam. See the tiny human to the lower right.

DayBreaks for 01/01/2019:Live the Power

From the DayBreaks archive, December 2008:

I am fascinated by power – not political or positional power, but energy. I’ve never been to Niagara Falls but only seen it from flying overhead. I’ve been told by those who’ve been there that the power of the water rushing over the falls is awesome. Hoover Dam houses 17 generators that are over 70 feet tall weighing over 2000 tons each. It takes about three years to assemble each generator. The moving part of each generator weighs over 800 tons and spins 3 times per second (180 times a minute!) Together, they generate over 2000 megawatts of energy (unless my math is wrong, that’s 2 billion watts). Pretty heady stuff. But it’s nothing compared to what’s being built just over the hill from us at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. It’s call the National Ignition Facility (NIF) and will be by far the most powerful laser in the world. Actually, it will be composed of 192 lasers when completed. Get this: the NIF will be able to generate 500 TRILLION watts of energy, a figure that is 100 times the total US generating capacity as of today. But there’s a tiny catch…that level of power will only be sustainable for 4 billionths of a second.

Here’s a story about another kind of power: “Christian Herter was the governor of Massachusetts, running for a second term in office. After a busy morning kissing babies and chasing votes, he arrived at a church BBQ in his honor. Late in the afternoon, he was famished. Moving down the serving line, he held out his plate to the woman serving chicken. She put a piece on his plate and turned to the next person. “Excuse me,” Governor Herter said, “do you mind if I have another piece of chicken?” “Sorry,” the woman told him. “I’m supposed to give one piece of chicken to each person.” “But I’m starved,” the governor said. “Sorry,” the woman said again. “Only one per customer.” Governor Herter, a modest/unassuming man, decide that this time he’d throw his weight around a little. “Do you know who I am?” he said. “I’m the governor of this state.” “Do you know who I am?” the woman said. “I’m the lady in charge of the chicken. Move along, mister.”

This lady had power and authority because she knew who she was and what she was supposed to do. Have you ever thought about what the world would be like if we Christians ever really understood WHO and WHAT we are in Christ?! If we ever grasp the truth of our sonship/daughtership – look out world! In Titus 2:15 Paul encourages Titus to teach, encourage and rebuke with all authority and not to let anyone despise us. We need to be courageous and take a stand and refuse to be despised! Then, 2 Tim. 1:7 says God’s Spirit doesn’t make cowards out of us. The Spirit gives us power, love and self-control. Do you live like you believe that?

When Satan comes through life’s serving line and wants things from us – let’s agree to tell him to “move along, mister!” We don’t have to take (or give) anything to him! Live in the power of the Spirit in 2019!

PRAYER: Father, may we come to appreciate and realize who we are, and what we are becoming, in Christ! In Jesus’ name, Amen.

DayBreaks for 7/26/18: What a Mystery!

NOTE: Galen is on vacation this week and may be unable to respond to email.

From the DayBreaks archive, July 2008:

Hebrews 13:5 (NIV) – Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’

Immanuel = God with us.

John 14:16 (KJV) – And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever…

In Revelation 4:8, we have a description of the worship of the angels: Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God the Almighty, who was and is and is to come.

In his excellent little book, God in the Flesh, Don Everts has focused on the “black” letters of the gospel story – not the red letters that were the words of Jesus, but the black letters that form the screenplay and commentary that captures the details that took place around Jesus, and the things that others said about him. At one point, in a chapter on worship and how people reacted to Jesus (those of clean hearts universally worshiped him!), Everts asks a very serious and probing question: “Is it really Yahweh who lives inside me? I mean, really. The Spirit of Jesus that has made a home within me – is it the real presence of fiery, jealous, powerful, divine Yahweh? Or is it a cute, lesser, diminished part of the Trinity?”

At one level, theologically and intellectually we have a very quick answer to that question: yes, it is Yahweh who lives within us. And yet…and yet…have we really grasped that the One who is worshipped by untold myriads of angels and the four living creatures day and night, who sing without ceasing to the worship and glory and praise of Yahweh – have we grasped that this is the One who lives in me? In you? How can it possibly be???? “That’s a mystery,” wrote Everts.

What difference would there be in how we live if we were able to really grasp Who it is that lives inside us? What if we really did die to ourselves so that Jesus could live HIS life through us?

PRAYER: We can scarcely believe your promises to us, to never leave us, to abide in us. These are great promises and we feel and act weak and defeated at the first hint of temptation. May we become possessed by the knowledge of your life within us, empowering us, leading and directing us, and giving us victory over sin. May we get ourselves out of the way by dying to ourselves so that You may live Your perfect life through us. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

DayBreaks for 6/22/18: Do You Mortify?

Romans 8:12-13 (ESV) – So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

The Continental Divide runs up from South America all the way up into Canada. On the eastern side, all the water runs toward the Atlantic/Gulf of Mexico, on the western side toward the Pacific. You can literally stand in the road and have one foot on the eastern side and one on the western side. It’s easy when there to move from one extreme to the other. But it’s far harder to move from unholiness to holiness.

Through the middle of our lives is a divide – far wider and far more significant that the Continental Divide. Earlier in Romans 8:5-8, Paul describes that our minds must be changed, transformed. But that’s not enough. Verses 9-11 say our entire being must be transformed – not just our minds, but our bodies/fleshly nature, too.

The real application here comes in verses 12-13 where we are, by the Spirit (not by our own power!), to put to death the deeds of the body. The whole thing is predicated on verse 12 where Paul says we are not debtors to the flesh. The word debtors here would be better translated as “obligated.” We are not obligated any longer to live in the ways of the flesh. We have the Spirit of God in us.

John Owen, writing long ago, said that we must “Be killing sin or it will be killing you.” What is called for is a continual rampage against sin in our lives. We are told to kill it, to mortify, to put it to death.

The billion dollar question though, is are you, am I, mortifying the flesh? Consider this analogy: if an intruder broke into your home and began firing bullets at your family trying to kill them, what would you do? We wouldn’t just invite them to sit down for a cup of coffee so we could discuss things. We would FIGHT – even to the point of killing that intruder in order to preserve the life and peace of our family.

How are we fighting sin? Are we fighting it with the same (or more!) passion as we would that intruder? Or, are we unwilling to kill sin because we want to be able to play with sin once every so often? Have we become so afraid of legalism that we’ve forgotten about the demand for holiness? Yes, God is gracious – far more gracious than we can imagine – but God is very clear: we are to kill sin in our lives by the Spirit. That means letting the Spirit do the killing, but that can only happen as we yield to Him and His control.

We can’t afford to be ho-hum about sin. The devil isn’t ho-hum in his attack on us. Our death is his intention! How could we be ho-hum about our sin when we see the price Jesus paid on Calvary to rescue us from it?

Let’s fight like our lives depend on it – and let Jesus’ holiness that has been credited to us take care of the times we fail.

PRAYER: Jesus, we aren’t very good at killing sin. We cannot do it on our own. Let us cry to you every single day and put our will and fleshlydesire to death. Let your Spirit have that work in us that we so desperately need! In Jesus’ name, Amen.

DayBreaks for 4/06/18: Unclear on the Concept

From the DayBreaks archive, 1998:

This emergency room story was interesting: “A 28-year old male was brought into the ER after an attempted suicide. The man had swallowed several nitroglycerin pills and a fifth of vodka. When asked about the bruises about his head and chest he said that they were from him ramming himself into the wall in an attempt to make the nitroglycerin explode.”

Galen’s Thoughts: My first reaction to the story: duh! Acts chapter 8 tells us about Simon the magician. Simon had made a living by practicing magical arts before the gospel came to his town. Many in his city heard the gospel and believed, including Simon. But when he saw what happened when the apostles laid their hands on people, he saw an opportunity and went for it. He did what many do: he tried to bribe God (through the apostles). Here’s the outcome from Acts 8:18-22: When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money and said, “Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.” Peter answered: “May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money! You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God. Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord. Perhaps he will forgive you for having such a thought in your heart.”

Have you ever tried to “bribe” God? “Lord, if you’ll just get me out of this financial mess, I’ll tithe the rest of my life.” “Lord, if you’ll heal my child of this disease, I’ll go to church every Sunday till I die.” “Lord, if you’ll just give me through this battle alive, I’ll stop drinking and serve you the rest of my life.” I’m ashamed to admit that I have tried to bribe Him. The only problem is: God cannot be bribed – least of all by humans.

Both the man in the ER and Simon the magician were unclear on the concept. Simon was not interested in bringing the Spirit to others but rather to gain the power and prestige of being able to do so for his own selfish motives. Selfish motives are forever the bane of preachers and teachers. We must remember that we cannot at the same time show how clever we are and how wonderful Christ is. Christ must have the preeminence.

Secondly, Simon forgot that not all gifts can be bought with money. I may look at a birthday gift for my wife or children and buy it with money, but character cannot be bought. Certain gifts are dependent on character. It is impossible to bring the Spirit to others unless you first have the Spirit yourself.

Are you clear on the concept that in all things Christ must be first and you must be last? Be sure that in all things He is first in your life and that you put Him front and center so He (rather than you) is glorified!

PRAYER: Jesus, give us hearts that are content to yield all glory to you and to seek none for ourselves! In Jesus’ name, Amen.

DayBreaks for 2/21/18: An Imitation of the Master

From the DayBreaks archive, February 2008:

So, how do you plan to spend your day today? Did you create a “laundry list” of things that you need to get done or should do? How’s it going so far? Has the list gotten smaller or bigger as the day progressed? How much time do you spend planning out your next day?

It seems that no matter what I do or how meticulously I might try to plan things, it never seems to quite work out like I’d planned. Perhaps that’s what the writer of Proverbs had in mind when he wrote in Proverbs 19:21 (NLT) – You can make many plans, but the LORD’s purpose will prevail. I think I’ve got my day all figured out, but NOT! I often look at the things that come along in the course of a day as being unwelcome events…after all, I’ve got a plan and if I can just run it like clockwork, it’s the best thing, right? Not really. Why should I think that my well-laid plans are the best thing for me to do each day, or the best way to do them, or even that they’re the most important things to do on any given day?

We need to learn to welcome interruptions. Mark Buchanan says that the devil seeks to distract, but God seeks to interrupt, and how quickly we fall prey to Satan’s distractions but how we equally quickly grow oblivious to God’s interruptions. Satan wants us to become distracted from God and godly things, but God wants to interrupt our schedules and plans with things which are more important. Who am I to say that the interruption by the person in the next cubicle is not a portion of a God-directed plan for something greater than the accomplishment of my little plans? Isn’t that perhaps what the writer of the Proverb was saying?

Jesus’ life was dominated by purpose – he came to offer his life as a ransom. Reading the gospels, especially John, one gets the sense that Jesus entire life was spent moving towards Jerusalem and the cross. And indeed, it was always his purpose. But along the way, many things happened to him that we would consider interruptions. It isn’t clear that Jesus kept anything like a detailed itinerary of his daily schedule. In fact, his daily life seemed to be lived by interruption: a woman who touches his clothes and is healed, a dead son begin wept over by his mother, a dinner at a taxpayer’s house, a wedding feast in Cana, a leader of Roman soldiers who entreats him for a healing, little children who wanted to be held, storms on the sea, fishing with his buddies, questions from the scribes and Pharisees – and the list goes on virtually endlessly. He always found time for telling stories, for people along the route to the cross who hadn’t scheduled a moment of his time.

So what was Jesus’ secret and what dictated Jesus’ schedule? How did he number his days aright? Perhaps Jesus came the closest to answering that himself in Mt. 11:1-11, when he said, The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” Jesus listened and watched the Spirit – and did what the Spirit directed.

Peter, after saying Jesus is the Lord of all, describes how Jesus spent his days: God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and…he went around doing good. (Acts 10:36, 38)

There you have it: the sum of Jesus’ earthly vocation is that he wandered and he blessed. Jesus was a vagabond physician, the original doctor without borders. His purpose was crystal clear – but his methods appear to be random. Henri Nouwen observed something like this about his own life: “My whole life I have been complaining that my work was constantly interrupted until I discovered the interruptions were my work.”

PRAYER: May we discern Your interruptions, Lord, and may we go with You to do what You want us to do together. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

DayBreaks for 2/12/18: The Spirit and the Wind

John 3:8 (NIV) – The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.

Without a doubt, the aspect of the Trinity that we know the least about would be the Spirit. Even His name, “Spirit”, seems strange and mysterious to us compared to Father or Son. We long to lay our eyes upon the Father and upon the Son, but how often have you heard anyone say, “I can’t wait until I see the Spirit!”

As you probably know, the word for Spirit in Greek is pneuma. It’s translated as breath, wind, spirit. In John 3:8, it is the word that Jesus uses when speaking of the Holy Spirit. That just makes it all the more mysterious, don’t you think? You cannot see the wind itself, but you can see its effects. So it is with the Spirit. Jesus says the wind blows where it decides to go, and so does the Spirit. The wind can be gentle or powerful, so it is with the Spirit. It is interesting to me, that in Genesis 1:2, the Spirit of God is introduced, and as the KJV puts it, “the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters” – just like the wind that moves over land and sea.

I have been focusing a lot lately in my life on trying to see and perceive God more clearly though the things that He has created. Sometimes my eyes are covered and I struggle to see Him in things, but at others, I wonder if I sometimes go a bit too far with my perceptions. We live in a time when we have a scientific explanation for everything, where even the human genome has been fully mapped, where earthquakes are no longer believed to be an act of God (or the gods to the pagans), where eclipses are understood to be naturally occurring celestial events rather than a sign of displeasure from on high. Solomon said that “to everything there is a season” but modern man in all our supposed wisdom, says “To everything there is an explanation.” Something great has been lost, I fear. Mystery has been subsumed by the mundane and de-mystified.

Here’s my point: what if, just for sake of conjecture, we were to think of the breeze, the wind as being the Spirit passing by instead of being caused by competing areas of high and low pressure in the atmosphere? After all, the wind and Spirit are used interchangeably in some Biblical texts. Maybe it isn’t just the movement of air molecules that brushes your face when you step outside today – maybe it’s the breath of the Spirit, or the caress of His hand as the Spirit moves around you.

Would that not be a better way for us who are believers to think of the wind? While I’m not possessed of enough wisdom and insight to know whether or not it is true, Scripture says that the Lord will never leave us – and where the Lord is, the Spirit is. And if we were to start to think of the wind as the Spirit every time we sense the breeze, if we let it draw our thoughts to God would we not be better off than explaining it away as just the difference in atmospheric pressure?

PRAYER: Sometimes, Lord, we listen too much to science and not nearly enough to Your Spirit, that we confess is mysterious indeed to us. Teach us through the things that You’ve created, capture our imaginations and hearts anew with the awe and wonder we once knew as little children, and direct our thoughts toward You. In Jesus’ name, Amen.